[Verse 1: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
Well, there's three versions of this story
Mine, and yours, and then the truth
Now we can put it down to circumstance
Our childhood, then our youth

[Pre-Chorus 1: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
Out of some sentimental gain
I wanted you to feel my pain
But it came back return to sender
I read your mind and tried to call
My tears could fill the Albert Hall
Is this the sound of sweet surrender?

[Chorus: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
Oh, what a shame

[Verse 2: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
So I got busy throwing everybody
Underneath the bus, oh
And with your poster thirty foot high
At the back of Toys-R-Us

[Pre-Chorus 2: Both & Robbie Williams]
I wrote a letter in my mind
But the words were so unkind
About a man I can't remember
I don't recall the reasons why
I must have meant them at the time
Is this the sound of sweet surrender?

[Chorus: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
And that's how they stay
Oh, what a shame

[Bridge: Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
Words come easy when they're true
Words come easy when they're true

[Verse 3: Robbie Williams & Both]
So I got busy throwing everybody underneath the bus
And with your poster thirty foot high at the back of Toys-R-Us
Now we can put it down to circumstance, our childhood, then our youth

[Chorus: Both, Robbie Williams & Gary Barlow]
What a shame we never listened
I told you through the television
And all that went away was the price we paid
People spend a lifetime this way
And that's how they stay
People spend a lifetime this way
Oh, what a shame

[Outro: Both & Gary Barlow]
What a shame
Uh-uh-uh, such a shame, what a shame
Pitiful shame, real shame, powerful stuff, proper shame
Shame, shame, shame, shame, haha